DownTime
by Fictionnaire
Summary: Gibbs is injured and is forced on leave.  What does he do to recuperate?  How does he handle it?  He finds out there's more to life than boats.  Some chapters will be written in 2 points of view.


DOWN-TIME

Gibbs barely walked to the couch in his living room. Two broken ribs, a GSW to his left arm and there was still pain in his leg. He was forced on leave by a doctor, by Ducky and even the Director and frankly was bored out of his skull thinking about it. At least the couch looked comfortable.

Tony leant him one of his TV sets and DVD player since all he had was a black and white and an old model hooked up to a VCR. Gibbs reluctantly agreed just to get everyone off his back.

It was two days into his home recovery before deciding to turn the big TV on which looked completely out of place and began channel surfing.

"Why's there so many channels," he swallowed a couple of pain pills before carefully easing him self deeper into the couch.

'_Charmander… I choose you,' _Gibbs heard the voice on the television set.

He watched with half interest as a young kid held a ball in front of him a red light came out of it and a little dragon materialized. It didn't seem to bother the little Dragon that it's own tail was on fire. The little thing looked threateningly as he put his hands on its hips.

"What?" Gibbs' curiosity prevented him from changing the channel.

'Oh how cute. A little Charmander. I think I'll choose Squirtle,' the other kid sounded cocky. As a little fat blue turtle with a red shell appeared.

"Makes sense," Gibbs commented. Apparently Squirtle was a water thingy. It was basically a fire versus water thing.

'_It's a cute little squirtle!'_ The young woman clasped her hands together near her cheek and lifted one leg up. Her cartoon eyes went all funny.

'_Char… Char, Charmander,' _the little Red Dragon said.

'_Squirtle, squirtle, squirtle,' _that turtle thingy argued back. Gibbs thought that those things were trying to psych each other same as their handlers or trainers as they were called. There were aerobatics, acrobatics, fire meeting water and water meeting fire as the so called battle raged on.

The little Dragon, Charmander, looked beaten and his handler, Ash, Gibbs learned from the cheer squad, commanded him to return. Charmander looked angry and it turned around and breathed a ball of fire at the trainer. Ash's face blackened as he was surrounded by fire. The boy jumped up and down and waved his hands.

Gibbs laughed and winced in pain. He wasn't sure why he found it funny but he did. After another difficult part of the battle, Squirtle was knocked unconscious by an overpowering ray of fire. Apparently crosses on the eyes meant that the Pokemon thingy was unable to continue fighting.

Gibbs checked the pill bottle. Perhaps the painkillers were effecting his mind.

'_Yay! I have my WaterA Gym badge'_ Ash raised his voice and held the gem up as if he was holding Excalibur.

"Okay," Gibbs was about to turn the channel over when a man and a woman suddenly appeared on the show without warning.

'_Prepare for trouble… Make that double. To protect the world from devastation. To unite all peoples within our nation. To denounce the evils of truth and love. To extend our reach to the stars above… Jessie… James… Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light. Surrender now or prepare to fight,' _the two older people in the show said. They alternated their sentences. They've clearly said it so many times.

Gibbs wasn't sure what to think. It was like a car wreck in the sense you couldn't take your eyes off it. But he smiled out of confusion when a catlike thing appeared in between Team Rocket. It looked like a cat doped to the gills on steroids.

'_Meowth… That's right,'_ the little cat thing said.

The phone rung. He reached over and took it off its cradle. "Yes?" He asked. It was his home phone since the cell was still on his desk.

"_Hey, Boss," _It was Tony's voice and he sounded like he was out of breath.

"What's wrong, DiNozzo?" Gibbs was hoping that he'd be needed back at the office. There was a long pause on Tony's end of the phone.

"_What are you watching?_" Tony asked. His voice seemed to be getting louder and softer then back to louder.

Gibbs turned the sound down on the TV. He was happy that it had a remote actually. "Nothing, DiNozzo," Gibbs answered quickly. There was no way he was going to admit to watching whatever he was watching.

"_It just sounded like…" _Tony began to say.

"What you want, DiNozzo?" Gibbs interrupted him. There had to be a reason for the call.

"_Seeing how you are and if you need anything, Boss," _Tony answered. It sounded like he was trying not to laugh. There sounded like some clapping in the background that suddenly stopped.

"I'm fine, DiNozzo. What's going on?" Gibbs queried the background noise.

"_Think Agent Connors just dropped a folder. Real slow day, Boss. Call if you need anything," _ Tony answered.

"All right, DiNozzo," Gibbs said before hanging up the phone.

'_Team Rocket is blasting off again'_ Gibbs watched the rest of the program. He wasn't sure why but was glad it was over.

Xxxxxxxxxx

DiNozzo's POV

The Senior Field Agent loved being in charge. Sure he was concerned about his Boss but Gibbs had to recuperate after the intense fight. He wondered if Gibbs even bothered to turn the television on or watch some of the movies. Gibbs wasn't a man who watched many movies and hated to sit still.

Kind of a sense of poetic justice really. Usually it was Gibbs trying to get the Senior Field Agent to recuperate.

The paperwork had been done early and the whole squadroom seemed to be quiet. These were the moments that Tony both loathed and loved. He already had made different types of paper planes and already labeled them.

He launched one and it got caught by some wind coming from somewhere and almost hit the ME as he walked into the bullpen.

"Wasn't me," Tony said with a guilty smile.

"I need to go off for a couple of hours," Ducky told him.

Tony nodded and ran to pick up his wayward plane.

"Can you call Jethro and see if he's alright?" Ducky asked.

"Yeah sure," Tony answered.

Tony saw that he wasn't the only one who was fiddling with paper planes. He started it and now others were following his lead. He rung up Gibbs when Ducky had left.

"_Yes?" _Gibbs sounded annoyed.

Tony thought that he might have been sleeping, he just managed to duck out of the way of a plane and he twirled around before picking it up and throwing it.

"Hey, Boss," Tony greeted his Boss.

"_What's wrong, DiNozzo?"_ Gibbs asked.

Tony could hear something in the background on Gibbs' end of the phone. He swore it sounded like an episode of Pokemon. Not that he would ever admit to watching that show… Publicly anyway.

"What are you watching?" Tony asked as he turned his head away to watch some people walking by. Some of them were lining up near the steps leading to the landing and had their planes at the ready.

Tony heard the TV set being turned down. _"Nothing, DiNozzo,"_ Gibbs answered flatly.

"It just sounded like…" Tony was about to say it sounded like the kiddy show Pokemon. Even though the idea sounded absurd.

"_What you want, DiNozzo," _Gibbs interrupted him.

"Seeing how you are and if you needed anything, Boss," Tony almost laughed when a plane curved upwards and went for a nosedive as the other traveled a good distance. People started clapping and Tony made the cut it sign and pointed to the phone. That made them stop.

"_I'm fine, DiNozzo. What's going on?"_ Tony knew that Gibbs had heard the clapping.

He thought up an excuse immediately. "Think Agent Connors just dropped a folder. It's been a real slow day. Call if you need anything," Tony noticed that Connors shot him a glance and Tony just shrugged in response.

"_All right," _Gibbs responded before hanging up.

McGee and Ziva looked at him questioningly. "Says he's fine," Tony knew there were many degrees of 'fine.' "If I didn't know any better… I swear Gibbs was watching Pokemon," Tony told them.

The others looked at him disbelievingly.

"Yeah you're right," Tony read their faces.

Xxxxxxxxx

**A/N: This is just a silly idea. Came up when someone mentioned Gibbs talking about Pokemon on a 'Lines you'll never hear on NCIS' Game.**


End file.
